OK so you have bought an Acer Aspire one with just 512MB of memory and you want to upgrade it to 1.5GB. You've looked on the net and seen the youtube videos and you are worried about screwing up your machine and voiding your warranty.

PC World offer a memory installation service for £14.99. Now normally this involves undoing 3 screws and clipping the memory into a slot - a 1 minute job - even for laptops you usually open up a compartment and slot in the memory. Easy money for PC world.

However the AA1 requires you to undo a lot of screws, remove ribbon cable, remove the keyboard and crack open the case - a half hour job with the potential to break the machine. PC world will however do this for the same £14.99 they charge to install memory on a desktop - a comparative bargain.

I know someone who has had this done at PC world to their AA1 and they did a great job - obviously their reputation goes before them however YMMV. At least if they trash it they sell new ones so they should be able to compensate you then and there!!!

You have to buy your memory from PC world but they do a 1 GB SODIMM for £13 (Product code: 926560) which is a similar price to Crucial.

Note: if you have the 1GB version you already have a 512MB SODIMM in the slot so you will still only get 1.5GB total

:x don't like the idea of chipped keys and broken Key Board ribbon socket ! going to cost £28.00 making the cheapest AAO £179.00 + £28,00 = £207.00 does seem a lot, having said that don't think you buy a One with 1.5G Ram.

Anyone that knows anything about the acer one will know this isn't an easy job. I am very experienced with computers, building from scratch, upgrading and such and I wouldn't entertain the idea of upgrading my one.

Having said that they run just fine for what they are designed for with just 512mb ram, it's not designed for power number crunching

puting memory in a laptop has to be one of the easiest things to do!! and that point about not voiding warranty?? Thats totally wrong.

Do it yourself and save the £15. It really is a simple task. don't go thinking you need static gaurds to protect it either :-)

Nice to see you read the original post which explains that you are wrong. You really need to watch the video of this memory upgrade - thats the whole point ofthis deal - normally this service is a rip off - but for an AA1 its a bargain.

puting memory in a laptop has to be one of the easiest things to do!! and that point about not voiding warranty?? Thats totally wrong.

Do it yourself and save the £15. It really is a simple task. don't go thinking you need static gaurds to protect it either :-)

You clearly have not seen the Acer one. The memory is on the bottom underneath everything.

Upgrading although easy and not too difficult means you have to take the whole M/B, KB etc, out. Something I'm sure Acer intended so that warranty repairs could be put to some crummy excuse about the ram upgrade.

IF (and a big IF) PCW could guarantee not to void warranty THEN and only THEN would this be a OK deal.

still seems pretty easy to upgrade even though the ram is buried at the bottom.

There is no way the warranty would be voided by doing this, PC/Laptops are upgradable items and therefore it is expected that these machines will be opened and upgraded no matter where the RAM is located. Saying that if you put a screw driver through your mobo while doing this do not expect to be covered as that would be accidental damage and is never covered in manufactures warranty but if something later went wrong on the machine you would be fine.

I have taken all the warranty stickers off my machine (not an acer) and upgraded various parts in the first year and when the mobo died later in the year the manufacture replaced it and it and not say a thing about the upgrades or the fact the warranty stickers were either gone or broken.

After watching the you tube video it looks to be far harder than normal laptops - not that difficult but unless you have plenty of time (and have already tinkered around with a laptop) then £15 to get PCWorld to do it looks to be worthwhile.

also would you really trust the instore techguys to dismantle your laptop? From remembering a converstaion with a person i use to know that worked at pcw the instore techs in the main are not qualifed engineers, let face it if you were would you work in pcw?

I imagine they are only use to do simple tasks like recovering machines and installing basic ram, possibley an optical drive. Any proper repairs to customers machines are sent to a workshop in mansfield or a proper engineer goes out to the shop. So would you trust them to do this to your machine?

Any proper repairs to customers machines are sent to a workshop in mansfield or a proper engineer goes out to the shop. So would you trust them to do this to your machine?

Actually this is wrong.

These machine are repaired by a company called InfoTeam under the manufacturers warranty mainly due to Linux being the native OS

Its worth bearing the "Linux" issue in mind if you are looking for any aftersales telephony support from PCWorld/TheTechGuys/Currys/Currys Digital/TheLink Online etc.
Currently the call-centres operated for the DSGi group (aka TheTechGuys) do not support Linux. Buyers of extended warranties beware!

FYI - InfoTeam do offer a very limited level of support for Linux (and I do mean limited!), but will usually uplift fairly willingly.

These machine are repaired by a company called InfoTeam under the manufacturers warranty mainly due to Linux being the native OS

Its worth bearing the "Linux" issue in mind if you are looking for any aftersales telephony support from PCWorld/TheTechGuys/Currys/Currys Digital/TheLink Online etc.
Currently the call-centres operated for the DSGi group (aka TheTechGuys) do not support Linux. Buyers of extended warranties beware!

FYI - InfoTeam do offer a very limited level of support for Linux (and I do mean limited!), but will usually uplift fairly willingly.

Well what i should have said then is that in the main machines go to the mansifield workshop, i know it not the case that they all go there as some compaq and hp machices go to teleplan and sony machines tend to go back to sony but that was not the point of what i was saying my point was that the instore techs tend not to be skilled or certified engineers and therefore i would not trust them doing this sort of work.

Some customers are under th false impression if they leave their broken machine in store then it will be repaired in store by one of the instore techs but that is simple not true, if it is a laptop then it gets taken away by courier to one of few different workshops and if it a desktop an engineer goes out to it.

Just picked this 512MB SODIMM for £2.97 up from PC World as seemed a bit of a bargain. Can anyone say (or PM me) if this is compatible with the Acer One spare memory slot (details below). If so, might be worth posting as a deal on its own.

PC WORLD Product No 801223.

The double data rate Component Shop PC2-5300 DDR2-667 SODIMM RAM Memory Module - 512MB provides total transfer speeds of up to 667 MHz to better increase the performance of resource intensive applications such as video editing, audio production and more! Implementing memory modules such as the 200 pin, Component Shop PC25300 DDR667 SODIMM RAM is an inexpensive way to maximise the operation of your notebook and reduce the stress created by non-responsive programs!

Only £19.99 memory left at PCW Edinburgh store but it didn't matter anyway. Their tech guy took one look and said no thanks to do the upgrade for £14.99. They said it would take a whole day and wanted £99.99. That was after the guy at the desk saying "yes, no problem" we stock these anyway!